Foreign and International Law Materials

Research Guides
Country Background Information
International Subject Collections
Treaties
Foreign Laws
Foreign Case Law 
European Law

I. Research Guides

LLRX
Collection of pathfinders and guides authored by law librarian experts from around the world; materials are organized by subject and jurisdiction.

Globalex
Collection of pathfinders and guides authored by law librarians from around the world; this website is sponsored by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU

II. Country Background Information

Baker & McKenzie
In depth guides on doing business in a foreign country presented by a global law firm

Export Portal at Department of Commerce
Practical information geared towards U.S. companies wishing to do business overseas

University of Colorado Country Information
Valiant effort by UColorado librarians to gather links to all US government information on other countries (including i.e. World Fact Book, State Department Country guides etc.) at one website

World Legal Systems at University of Ottawa
Helpful use of internet technology to illustrate and explain the legal systems of the world graphically via color coded interactive maps

III. International Subject Collections

Natlex
Database of national labour, social security and related human rights legislation maintained by the International Labour Organization's (ILO's) International Labour Standards Department.

Global Insolvency Law Database
The GILD is the World Bank's legal portal for insolvency and creditor rights (ICR) matters.

Buffalo Criminal Law Center
Collection of criminal law resources on the internet

FAOLEX
http://faolex.fao.org/faolex/
Comprehensive and up-to-date computerized legislative database; one of the world's largest electronic collections of national laws and regulations on food, agriculture and renewable natural resources

IV. Treaties

Hague Conference on Private International Law  
Important collection of treaties relating to litigation, family, estate and other private international law matters with comprehensive status information; the U.S. is an original member of the Hague Conference.

State Department Website  
Indispensable source of current U.S. Treaty information; look at the information provided by the Office of Legal Affairs (under Treaty Affairs) and also the Bureau of Consular Affairs (Information for Americans); alternatively use the alphabetical subject index at the State.gov home page or do a google search to find specific information at this website (i.e. service process Kuwait)

V. Foreign Laws

Foreign Law Guide
Electronic incarnation of the venerable Reynolds & Flores loose-leaf set Foreign Law: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World; this subscription website represents the gold standard in foreign legal research, but is only available for a fee; it provides the most comprehensive, in depth coverage available of high quality current sources, both print and electronic, of foreign laws in their original language and English translation

Global Legal Information Network
As stated by the Library of Congress, GLIN is a "public database of official texts of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations...GLIN members contribute the full texts of their published documents to the database in their original languages. Each document is accompanied by a summary in English..."

German Law: Resources in English
Sponsored by the University of Saarbrucken; Some of the information may be dated due to unavoidable delay in English translation

VI. Foreign Case Law

Global Courts
Supreme Court Decisions from around the World

VII. European Law

Europa

Europa is the official website of the EU. It is a convenient gateway to basic information about Europe including history, key facts and figures, EU symbols and EU jargon. There is a link as well to treaties and laws.

Essential European Union Law Websites  
This listing was compiled by Ann Sweeney, EU Librarian

EUR-Lex

EUR-Lex is the official portal to EU law. It provides free access to EU legal sources including the Official Journal of the European Union as well as the treaties, legislation, case-law and legislative proposals.

Cases